Blood test predicts response to immunotherapy (Simple, available blood test negates need for lung biopsy in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients)

Medical Xpress / Northwestern University / Nature Medicine ^ | May 23, 2022 | Will Doss / Edward S. Kim et al

[ConservativeMind]

A blood-based tumor biomarker can predict the benefit of immunotherapy to patients with non-small cell lung cancer, according to a study.

"The findings from this study will help us identify and design better blood-based biomarkers in immuno-oncology," said Young Kwang Chae, MD, MPH, MBA.

Atezolizumab monotherapy, an immune checkpoint therapy, is an effective treatment for patients with locally advanced or metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) whose tumors have high programmed death ligand 1 (PD-L1) expression. When PD-L1 is bound to the exterior of a cell, it tells roaming T-cells to leave the cell alone. Many cancers have upregulated PD-L1 to help hide cancer cells from the immune system.

However, a biopsy is required to determine PD-L1 levels and as many as 30% of patients with NSCLC may not have enough high-quality tissue biopsied at diagnosis for accurate biomarker analyses, according to Chae.

"We often run into the issue of insufficient tissue samples to run biomarker analysis in lung cancer, so it is important to develop a blood-based biomarker predicting response to immunotherapy," said Chae.

In the trial, which enrolled 153 patients with NSCLC, investigators analyzed circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) for tumor mutational burden (TMB), a measure of total mutations found in the DNA of cancer cells. Cancers with high TMB have been associated with a positive response to immune checkpoint inhibitor therapies.

Of the patients, 28 had high TMB values—making them suitable for atezolizumab monotherapy—while 91 patients had low TMB values. Notably, the high TMB group was slightly younger and had more smokers.

All patients received atezolizumab monotherapy, and response rates to the therapy were much higher in the high TMB group—35.7% compared to just 5.5% in the low TMB group. Patients in the high TMB group also experienced longer survival than those in the low TMB group.

[ConservativeMind]

Anything that stops a lung biopsy is good, in my book.

Unfortunately, the medicine doesn’t work well for the majority of sufferers.

[ConservativeMind]

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[bitt]

p

[Tunehead54]

Smoker bump. Only 50 years though. Thanks. ;-)

[Bob Ireland]

Mebendazole (febendazole):

Several studies show mebendazole exhibits potent antitumor properties. MBZ significantly inhibited cancer cell growth, migration, and metastatic formation of adrenocortical carcinoma, both in vitro and in vivo. Treatment of lung cancer cell lines with MBZ caused mitotic arrest, followed by apoptotic cell death with the feature of caspase activation and cytochrome c release. MBZ induced a dose- and time-dependent apoptotic response in human lung cancer cell lines, and apoptosis via Bcl-2 inactivation in chemoresistant melanoma cells. The anti-cancer effect of mebendazole comes from preclinical studies and case reports.

[little jeremiah]

Can you post that on the Natural Health thread? I have house guests coming tomorrow and I am totally frazzled to the max, I won’t be on FR for a couple of days... and when the coast is clear, I may forget etc.

https://freerepublic.com/focus/bloggers/3735908/posts?q=1&;page=1344#1344